Levels and Experience Tropes

"I get solo XPs!"

— The Spoony Experiment

Tropes about levels, experience to increase levels, and the grinding for experience. These are the tropes that are most typical of roleplaying games and games with RPG Elements.

Compare Skills and Training Tropes.

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Tropes

• Absurdly High Level Cap
  Reaching max level brings you much higher than you'd need to complete the game.
• Absurdly Low Level Cap
  Reaching max level will happen just from completing the main quest and some sidequests.
• Anti-Grinding
  The game has ways to make grinding either impossible or of little use.
• Character Level
  When this gets higher, your character's abilities get stronger.
• Class and Level System
  How your characters level up dependent on their battle style.
• Easy Exp
  Some XP is awarded with minimal effort.
• Empty Levels
  Late game levels may give diminishing returns, or smaller boosts than others.
• Equipment-Based Progression
  When a character is improved with better items, rather than levels.
• Equipment Upgrade
  When equippable items have their own levels.
• Experience Booster
  This makes you get more XP than you would have.
• Experience Meter
  When it fills up, you raise a level.
• Experience Penalty
  You get less XP than usual.
• Experience Points
  How many points gained, and how many left to the next level.
• Leaked Experience
  Some characters can get XP even when not in the battle.
• Level Grinding
  Spend a few hours killing enemies, and the XP will pile up.
• Level Limiter
  You can voluntarily adjust, lower, or reset your level, or equip something to stop gaining EXP.
• Level-Locked Loot
  Equipment will not be usable until you reach its required minimum in a level or stat.
• Level Scaling
  Enemies level with you, so it takes more than just being high level to win.
• Level-Up Fill-Up
  Leveling up restores health and/or mana.
• Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards
  Leveling up will eventually make sorcery classes more powerful than melee classes.
• Low-Level Advantage
  Sometimes being lower level puts you at a better situation.
• Magikarp Power
  Reach a certain level and a weak character or class turns incredibly powerful.
• Money Is Experience Points
  In-game currency can be used to level up your character and learn new abilities as well as other purposes.
• No Experience Points for Medic
  Some games will only award XP for combat moves, not healing.
• Non-Combat EXP
  You don't have to fight to get experience.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling
  If you can take the monsters here, you will level grind much faster than normal.
• Rare Candy
  Raise stats as though a character leveled up.
• RPG Elements
  Levels and XP are included in non-RPG games.
• Spell Levels
  Even your magic and abilities have their own levels.
• Stat Grinding
  Use abilities and powers to make them level up.
• Strong Enemies, Low Rewards
  Defeating high-level enemies will give you little-to-no rewards, which can include experience points.

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